Monday's training included placing an officer in a "life-or-death" scenario.

Officers say it's as close to the real thing as they can get. The sweat is pouring, the adrenaline is pumping and they have very little idea what they're about to encounter, just the limited information they can ascertain from a police scanner.

Today's training took place in a vacant building in Ithaca. Officers cleared the facility from the ground up until they got to a room with a shooter and hostages who were alive and dead.

"They identified the bad guy, used deadly physical force and took the bad guy into custody," said Sgt. Jacob Young of the Ithaca Police Department.

In a matter of seconds, the police entered the room, assessed the situation and shot the "suspect." Since it was just training, the officers used paintballs.

Officers said they feel better prepared and more ready should they ever have to face a real hostage situation.